There are a ton of rumors floating around. Here are a few:
1. Rampant cheating for the final exam last semester. (And the cheaters are all failing in class this semester)
2. GIGU (2nd semester) is down to 11 students from 130.
3. Out of every class only 10 people graduate.
We really need a rumor control hotline. Maybe the staff wants us all on edge and encourages these rumors. Who knows? (Lets not start another one here.) It depends on who you are whether or not you believe these things. Lets keep our heads people, we have enough other topics with which to fill our brains. Have a great week everyone!
Monday, May 26, 2008
First Exams
Apparently I do not have to quit my job yet. The exams went good, and I feel better about my organization and schedule.
MATH
The math exam is 10 questions. Passing is getting 9 out of 10 or better. Anything less is failing. I took my time and did all of the questions. Then I had enough time to go back and to them all again. I did take almost the entire hour to finish, but I did not want to have to come back on week 4. I could use that time to study something else. Woo Hoo, I scored 10/10!
I plan on practicing some problems every few days because we will be using these conversion factors for the rest of our lives.
LECTURE
There are 50 questions on the exam. If you score below a 37 you are "encouraged" to go to the lab and take the tutorial on test taking for nurses. I was going to go anyway, but just literally ran out of time. Math on Thursdays cut into my lab time, but now I plan to go this week. I did buy and read much of Test Success for Nursing Process which is recommended reading. It helped immensely.
I scored in the 40's and am quite interested in seeing where I went wrong with my thinking. I don't believe my errors were in knowledge, but in the process of answering these critical thinking questions. My next exam should be better.
Pretty much on top of studying, we need to study how to study. A few students have already talked about dropping the summer courses and picking them up again in the fall. I see their point. We have 4 weeks less to do the same amount of work, and our clinical days are both 2 hours longer than a normal semester's hours. It really cuts into the study time.
MATH
The math exam is 10 questions. Passing is getting 9 out of 10 or better. Anything less is failing. I took my time and did all of the questions. Then I had enough time to go back and to them all again. I did take almost the entire hour to finish, but I did not want to have to come back on week 4. I could use that time to study something else. Woo Hoo, I scored 10/10!
I plan on practicing some problems every few days because we will be using these conversion factors for the rest of our lives.
LECTURE
There are 50 questions on the exam. If you score below a 37 you are "encouraged" to go to the lab and take the tutorial on test taking for nurses. I was going to go anyway, but just literally ran out of time. Math on Thursdays cut into my lab time, but now I plan to go this week. I did buy and read much of Test Success for Nursing Process which is recommended reading. It helped immensely.
I scored in the 40's and am quite interested in seeing where I went wrong with my thinking. I don't believe my errors were in knowledge, but in the process of answering these critical thinking questions. My next exam should be better.
Pretty much on top of studying, we need to study how to study. A few students have already talked about dropping the summer courses and picking them up again in the fall. I see their point. We have 4 weeks less to do the same amount of work, and our clinical days are both 2 hours longer than a normal semester's hours. It really cuts into the study time.
Friday, May 16, 2008
Week One
May 16, 2008
Week One
The summer schedule is more intense than a regular semester. We have 12 weeks to learn what the other classes learn in 16 weeks. Let’s just say, it was an intense week.
There are a handful of people in our class that have not passed the January semester and are now doing it over. These are smart women, but they just didn’t get enough points. There are rumors of cheating in the last semester and because the professors found out about it, they have consequently made the exams harder. Rumor or not? I don’t know.
Every class ahead of us that we have tried to quiz has told us that the class they are currently in is the hardest. That tells us that the courses do not get easier as we go along.
The stressful parts of the week:
1. I went in the bathroom at 7:30 am Monday and it was dirty. Overflowing trashcans, limited tp, and towels, body fluids everywhere. It was never cleaned the entire day. Our class of 112 destroyed that bathroom and probably the one on the floor below. Keep in mind that there are also other classes using these bathrooms. If you take away paper goods from women they will straddle seats so they don’t have to touch anything. It was gross and disgusting. Some of us were using the toilet seat covers to wipe with. On Tuesday the bathroom was clean and we had paper towels but no tp. Friday was the same as Monday. I believe that for the amount of money most of us are paying, we should have clean, well stocked bathrooms.
2. Monday was 12 hours long for me. We had morning lecture, lunch, an afternoon seminar on studying, and evening Pharmacology. For 2/3 of the day we were told what to do if we fail. It was mostly bad news, very little positive speeches. We were told how we will not have time for anything else. Adding to that was the heat. It is super hot here and the a/c at the school is shut off on the weekend. It takes all day for the a/c to regulate and we have over 100 classmates. Several of us were getting very discouraged. A quick pep-talk from my friend about how it was their way of trying to weed us out snapped me out of it. Whew, I’ve worked so hard for this, I don’t want to be discouraged already. (To recap Monday was: heat, pee, and mental torture for 12 hours.)
3. Tuesday was clinical orientation. It was another long day of being told what to do when we fail the class. Sigh....
4. I believe that until they know us, everyone (professors and upperclassmen both) look at us as if we won’t be here for long. My vibes are usually correct. I guess statistically that is true, but it is personally insulting to me. I truly like a lot of my classmates and hope they stay on track with me.
5. I could not get my act together until Wednesday.
The good points of the week:
1. The professors seem to genuinely care about each other. My observation is that they do not only respect each other as nurses and teachers, but that they also like each other personally.
2. Wednesday we actually got to wear our uniforms and do something. There were a lot of movies being watched, but for about 2 hours we were able to practice vital signs on each other. It was the first time I felt truly awake.
3. I finally got organized. Thursday math class and Friday lecture were great. I felt prepared and less stressed.
4. My kids did not fall apart because I was gone. Did I mention they homeschool and that now they will be home on self study? Karate camp starts in 2 weeks for the summer so that is where they will be, how I will get them there and home is another story.
My advice this week is to get organized. I thought I was organized. I really wasn’t. On orientation day I showed up without a pen and had to borrow one. What is wrong with me? I am usually the person handing out pencils, scantrons, cookies, and tissues. On Wednesday I forgot to bring the lab sheets I had printed out. Geez..... Anyway, that night I went home and got it together. I have each class labeled in their own binders with dividers. There are several papers that need to be printed from the professor’s web site so I printed them and put them in the binder. I cleared my workspace. I will be de-cluttering my closet/laundry room so I only focus on nursing and not the million other things that are waiting for me.
We are advised to study 5 hours per day. I think 3 of those are for lecture, and the other 2 are for math and pharm. Let’s just say I am behind on my reading, but will be catching up this weekend. It is a lot of work! I will decide this weekend if I will be quitting my job or not. The downer is that I just became eligible for health insurance. It’s always something. I have gone from 5 days a week, to only weekends. They have switched my schedule to opening instead of closing so I am on the same schedule as school. I know there are strong single mothers out there who have worked while going to nursing school. Send us some encouragement!!!
Week One
The summer schedule is more intense than a regular semester. We have 12 weeks to learn what the other classes learn in 16 weeks. Let’s just say, it was an intense week.
There are a handful of people in our class that have not passed the January semester and are now doing it over. These are smart women, but they just didn’t get enough points. There are rumors of cheating in the last semester and because the professors found out about it, they have consequently made the exams harder. Rumor or not? I don’t know.
Every class ahead of us that we have tried to quiz has told us that the class they are currently in is the hardest. That tells us that the courses do not get easier as we go along.
The stressful parts of the week:
1. I went in the bathroom at 7:30 am Monday and it was dirty. Overflowing trashcans, limited tp, and towels, body fluids everywhere. It was never cleaned the entire day. Our class of 112 destroyed that bathroom and probably the one on the floor below. Keep in mind that there are also other classes using these bathrooms. If you take away paper goods from women they will straddle seats so they don’t have to touch anything. It was gross and disgusting. Some of us were using the toilet seat covers to wipe with. On Tuesday the bathroom was clean and we had paper towels but no tp. Friday was the same as Monday. I believe that for the amount of money most of us are paying, we should have clean, well stocked bathrooms.
2. Monday was 12 hours long for me. We had morning lecture, lunch, an afternoon seminar on studying, and evening Pharmacology. For 2/3 of the day we were told what to do if we fail. It was mostly bad news, very little positive speeches. We were told how we will not have time for anything else. Adding to that was the heat. It is super hot here and the a/c at the school is shut off on the weekend. It takes all day for the a/c to regulate and we have over 100 classmates. Several of us were getting very discouraged. A quick pep-talk from my friend about how it was their way of trying to weed us out snapped me out of it. Whew, I’ve worked so hard for this, I don’t want to be discouraged already. (To recap Monday was: heat, pee, and mental torture for 12 hours.)
3. Tuesday was clinical orientation. It was another long day of being told what to do when we fail the class. Sigh....
4. I believe that until they know us, everyone (professors and upperclassmen both) look at us as if we won’t be here for long. My vibes are usually correct. I guess statistically that is true, but it is personally insulting to me. I truly like a lot of my classmates and hope they stay on track with me.
5. I could not get my act together until Wednesday.
The good points of the week:
1. The professors seem to genuinely care about each other. My observation is that they do not only respect each other as nurses and teachers, but that they also like each other personally.
2. Wednesday we actually got to wear our uniforms and do something. There were a lot of movies being watched, but for about 2 hours we were able to practice vital signs on each other. It was the first time I felt truly awake.
3. I finally got organized. Thursday math class and Friday lecture were great. I felt prepared and less stressed.
4. My kids did not fall apart because I was gone. Did I mention they homeschool and that now they will be home on self study? Karate camp starts in 2 weeks for the summer so that is where they will be, how I will get them there and home is another story.
My advice this week is to get organized. I thought I was organized. I really wasn’t. On orientation day I showed up without a pen and had to borrow one. What is wrong with me? I am usually the person handing out pencils, scantrons, cookies, and tissues. On Wednesday I forgot to bring the lab sheets I had printed out. Geez..... Anyway, that night I went home and got it together. I have each class labeled in their own binders with dividers. There are several papers that need to be printed from the professor’s web site so I printed them and put them in the binder. I cleared my workspace. I will be de-cluttering my closet/laundry room so I only focus on nursing and not the million other things that are waiting for me.
We are advised to study 5 hours per day. I think 3 of those are for lecture, and the other 2 are for math and pharm. Let’s just say I am behind on my reading, but will be catching up this weekend. It is a lot of work! I will decide this weekend if I will be quitting my job or not. The downer is that I just became eligible for health insurance. It’s always something. I have gone from 5 days a week, to only weekends. They have switched my schedule to opening instead of closing so I am on the same schedule as school. I know there are strong single mothers out there who have worked while going to nursing school. Send us some encouragement!!!
Friday, May 9, 2008
First Day of Nursing 1020 Lecture
May 9, 2008 (North Campus)
I believe there are 120 students in class. There is at least one girl that I know is pretty smart, but is repeating the lecture part of the class. (She was originally in the January 08 class....now the May 08) That made a few of us pretty nervous. There seems to be a few people repeating math also.
It was mostly orientation today. I bought too many books. I would suggest only buying the bundle and the math book for the first week. During orientation you will be instructed on what else needs to be purchased. You do not actually need the Palm Pilot, purchase only if you would actually use it. I did buy it and some PDA version of books and I am quite pleased. I plan on adding some fiction when I think I have time to read. Maybe in 2 years.
We were advised on dress code. No shirts that show underneath our uniforms. No smelly beauty products. No leg showing between socks and pants when we sit. Post earrings. No acrylics, short nails. Hair up off of collar, not just a ponytail. No visible body piercings other than the 2 in the ear. All basic stuff.
The study plan is: Read the assignment before the lecture
Take notes
Rewrite your reading notes and the class notes together
Study, study, study!
We will have a special 2 hours session on Monday with a person who will give us good study tactics. Normally we have off between morning lecture and evening Pharmacology. Those of us that have to run kids around are scrambling to make last minute plans for them. Hopefully we will all be able to get our schedules together soon.
As the day wore on we got a little more nervous. There is a ton of reading to be done before next class, and I suppose it will always be that way. We ended by watching a cool video on some nursing history. It was very interesting. We can tape record this class, but don’t plan on other professors letting you do this. Also, here is a tip for your personal comfort: go to the bathroom before class. During break there will be 119 students in front of you that also have to go. Plan ahead! Go light on the liquids during class.
*A note on etiquette: Come back on time from break. Do not make a mess in the bathroom because they will know it is our class. If coming in late in the morning, sit on the side to the left of class (facing the board) and be quiet.
I believe there are 120 students in class. There is at least one girl that I know is pretty smart, but is repeating the lecture part of the class. (She was originally in the January 08 class....now the May 08) That made a few of us pretty nervous. There seems to be a few people repeating math also.
It was mostly orientation today. I bought too many books. I would suggest only buying the bundle and the math book for the first week. During orientation you will be instructed on what else needs to be purchased. You do not actually need the Palm Pilot, purchase only if you would actually use it. I did buy it and some PDA version of books and I am quite pleased. I plan on adding some fiction when I think I have time to read. Maybe in 2 years.
We were advised on dress code. No shirts that show underneath our uniforms. No smelly beauty products. No leg showing between socks and pants when we sit. Post earrings. No acrylics, short nails. Hair up off of collar, not just a ponytail. No visible body piercings other than the 2 in the ear. All basic stuff.
The study plan is: Read the assignment before the lecture
Take notes
Rewrite your reading notes and the class notes together
Study, study, study!
We will have a special 2 hours session on Monday with a person who will give us good study tactics. Normally we have off between morning lecture and evening Pharmacology. Those of us that have to run kids around are scrambling to make last minute plans for them. Hopefully we will all be able to get our schedules together soon.
As the day wore on we got a little more nervous. There is a ton of reading to be done before next class, and I suppose it will always be that way. We ended by watching a cool video on some nursing history. It was very interesting. We can tape record this class, but don’t plan on other professors letting you do this. Also, here is a tip for your personal comfort: go to the bathroom before class. During break there will be 119 students in front of you that also have to go. Plan ahead! Go light on the liquids during class.
*A note on etiquette: Come back on time from break. Do not make a mess in the bathroom because they will know it is our class. If coming in late in the morning, sit on the side to the left of class (facing the board) and be quiet.
Math for Nursing MTB 1370
May 9, 2008
Yesterday I had my first math class. It should be 4 weeks long at 4 hours per week (one day per week). Apparently it is actually 2 classes. On week three we take the exam. There are ten questions and to pass we must get a 90 or 100. Anything less and you kill (potentially) too many patients. I guess it is ok to kill ten percent, but not any more (just kidding God). What if you kill 100 out of 1000 patients (10%), is that too many?
If you pass the exam on week 3, there is no need to come back for week 4. If math is not your strong suit there is a lab, and practice worksheets. They really want you to succeed. There is a packet of 60 questions you must complete at home and turn in. All the work on every question must be shown on the packet and on the exams.
The only problem I can foresee is that the process for working the problems is different from the way I (and several other students) was taught in CHM 1032. I think we need to get past that block because it was a strange process in CHM, and we are now being taught the algebraic way. If I learn anything I think could help, I will post it here.
There are several topics covered so if you need a math review it is included in your math book. From what I see on the syllabus we have to cover 7 chapters this week, and 4 chapters next week. I will be reviewing most of these chapters because I am a glutton for punishment. I did just complete College Algebra so hopefully I’m covered with the basics.
We will be having dosage calculations on EVERY EXAM. Yes, EVERY EXAM for the rest of our lives. When we are hired on at a hospital we will have to take a dosage exam. Get cozy with that math book. There is practice sheets for each different course we are taking.
*A note on etiquette: Do not come late. Do not talk in class. Return from breaks on time. Do not take the staples out of the packet of papers given to you (don't ask, lol). Bring a black pen to sign everything.
Yesterday I had my first math class. It should be 4 weeks long at 4 hours per week (one day per week). Apparently it is actually 2 classes. On week three we take the exam. There are ten questions and to pass we must get a 90 or 100. Anything less and you kill (potentially) too many patients. I guess it is ok to kill ten percent, but not any more (just kidding God). What if you kill 100 out of 1000 patients (10%), is that too many?
If you pass the exam on week 3, there is no need to come back for week 4. If math is not your strong suit there is a lab, and practice worksheets. They really want you to succeed. There is a packet of 60 questions you must complete at home and turn in. All the work on every question must be shown on the packet and on the exams.
The only problem I can foresee is that the process for working the problems is different from the way I (and several other students) was taught in CHM 1032. I think we need to get past that block because it was a strange process in CHM, and we are now being taught the algebraic way. If I learn anything I think could help, I will post it here.
There are several topics covered so if you need a math review it is included in your math book. From what I see on the syllabus we have to cover 7 chapters this week, and 4 chapters next week. I will be reviewing most of these chapters because I am a glutton for punishment. I did just complete College Algebra so hopefully I’m covered with the basics.
We will be having dosage calculations on EVERY EXAM. Yes, EVERY EXAM for the rest of our lives. When we are hired on at a hospital we will have to take a dosage exam. Get cozy with that math book. There is practice sheets for each different course we are taking.
*A note on etiquette: Do not come late. Do not talk in class. Return from breaks on time. Do not take the staples out of the packet of papers given to you (don't ask, lol). Bring a black pen to sign everything.
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